Summary and Reviews of Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

Media Reviews

BookPage Thought-provoking and passionately told…Wild Dark Shore asks, what will happen when we risk losing our homes and our neighbors? What will we save and what will we let go of? And how can we start again after the sea takes it all?

Chicago Review of Books A suspenseful, rushing read, full of short chapters, emotional twists, and a landscape it's all too easy to sink into and live in. Wild Dark Shore is an exceptional book that hands readers a bittersweet helping of sorrow and joy, sounding a clarifying call towards a symbiotic survival that prioritizes our need to do more than simply subsist: to put trust in each other and in the nature that surrounds us.

Marie Claire Look no further if you're searching for a thriller that reads like top-class literary fiction. Written in sparse, haunting prose, Wild Dark Shore features characters so clearly drawn, you'll feel as if you're stuck on fictional Shearwater Island with them.

New York Times Book Review Vivid…Moving…Wild Dark Shore abounds with evocative nature writing…We're shown why a person might withdraw from the messiness of life after tragedy and trauma…The novel also offers its injured characters a path back to connection and community, a risk McConaghy argues must be worth taking, no matter how fraught the future.

Reader's Digest A gripping tale…With a breathtaking setting and characters you'll love, Wild Dark Shore is a suspenseful and moving must-read

Screen Rant Gripping… A thriller promising a unique premise, complex characters, and an atmospheric setting, Wild Dark Shore is a must-read.

Shelf Awareness Remarkable…Raising issues of love and family and sacrifice, Wild Dark Shore is a beautiful examination of hope in the face of certain destruction.

The Denver Post From the first page, McConaghy creates an intriguing maelstrom of uncertainty…McConaghy is a master who ignites both my intellect and emotions. Her characters have great depth and credibility; the wild settings are described with detail and delicacy that make her writing so beautiful. Her passion for nature illuminates her writing. McConaghy's plots are not optimistic, but still somehow they are hopeful, and leave me feeling enriched, satisfied, even inspired.

Town and Country Charlotte McConaghy, the author of the fantastic Migrations and Once There Were Wolves, delivers yet another page-turner set in the wilderness, making readers grapple with climate change and what you would do to survive.

Washington Post Spellbinding…Captivating…McConaghy keeps the novel moving at a blustery pace, thanks to her deft plotting and shared point of view…To read this exceptionally imagined, thoroughly humane novel feels like following the last people on Earth as they prepare to leave some part of their souls to the most beautiful place they'll ever know.

Booklist (starred review) Riveting… McConaghy's descriptions of nature's glory and terror are galvanic, the psychological struggles wrenching, the suspenseful action spectacularly choreographed. McConaghy has attained new heights of intensity and lacerating ecological conviction in this complexly plotted, tragic, and all-consuming tale of the battle to survive.

Kirkus Reviews (starred review) [A] terrific thriller…McConaghy keeps readers guessing…McConaghy writes about both nature and human frailty with eloquent generosity. Readers won't want to leave behind the imagined world of pain and beauty that McConaghy has conjured.

Library Journal (starred review) Sub-Antarctic noir meets a love letter to the rapidly disappearing wild world in McConaghy's latest…As lush as it is taut with tension, this novel is filled with both the joys and ravages of nature.

Publishers Weekly Urgent…McConaghy ratchets up the tension as the characters' paranoia and mutual suspicion increases and their motives are revealed…McConaghy blends entertainment with a sobering message about conservation and the impacts of geographic isolation.

 Hannah Kent, international bestselling author of Burial Rites At once a gripping mystery, an exquisitely written ode to the natural world, and a taut, psychological thriller, Wild Dark Shore is a triumph. Charlotte McConaghy is masterful in her ability to show the intricate connections between place and the human heart, and Wild Dark Shore shows her at the height of her powers. Breathtaking.